What Else Could Go Wrong?
by Faulty Cameras
Summary: Summer's stuck in an airport the night that Seth had something important planned for the two. While she passes the time waiting in the airport, he drives to get to her so he can carry out his plan.


Disclaimer: I own no part of The OC.

A/N-So I got the idea for this oneshot after I was stuck overnight in an airport Tuesday night. It may seem like it would be fun, but it really sucks, because it is impossible to sleep. Parts of this are partially based on the experience that I had. Anyways, I hope that everyone enjoys the story and thanks to Meg for proofreading and for the idea about Gus (to the realz!).

* * *

Summer looked up from the magazine that she was reading as Taylor approached her. 

"Please tell me that you have good news."

Taylor smiled apprehensively at her best friend, hating to be the one to tell Summer the news. "Well not exactly."

Summer threw down the magazine, glowering at Taylor. This whole ordeal was her fault. "What's going on?"

"Our flight is no longer delayed, it's been cancelled."

"You've got to be kidding me!"

"Unfortunately no. We're stuck here. The good news is I got an early morning flight. The not so good news is that every hotel that I've called in the area is pretty much booked."

"Which means...?" Summer prompted her friend to finish.

"We have to sleep in the airport."

Summer groaned. This was officially the worse day of her life.

It had all started two days ago, when Taylor had called her. She was her usual chirpy self but Summer knew there was some sort of hidden agenda. There always seemed to be one when Taylor was involved.

Sure enough there was. She had to visit some relatives in Buffalo, New York and didn't want to go alone. Her cousin had just had a baby and the two had been close when they were younger, so Taylor wanted to visit. She then said that they could go shopping there and see some of the sights, like Niagara Falls. In one large breath, Taylor announced that she was flying to Rhode Island and that she had already booked the plane tickets for the two to go to Buffalo.

Summer had protested. She didn't want to go on a Friday, they were her special day with Seth. It was a day that they both had off from work and they always spent the day together. She had been particularly looking forward to it because she was having a hard work week.

Taylor insisted though. She said that they didn't do things like that anymore (Summer tried to point out that they never did things like that but it fell on deaf ears) and she wanted to. She even went as far as calling Seth and asking him, who agreed, saying maybe it was a good idea for her to spend time with Taylor, considering they rarely saw one another due to the whole living on opposite sides of the country thing.

That was how Summer found herself at an airport at 5 in the morning and then spending the whole day in Buffalo. Which really, Niagara Falls was cool, but she couldn't stand the immense amounts of snow that they had to deal with and Taylor's cousin's baby was cute, but cried the whole time they were there. Summer was starting to get a headache and she just wanted to go home.

They got to the Buffalo Airport only to find out that their flight had been delayed. Two hours of waiting and it turned out that their flight was cancelled.

"But you know maybe it won't be so bad. Hey! It'll be like a sleepover! That's fun right?"

Summer rolled her eyes. "Taylor. This is in no way going to be fun. We have to sleep in an airport. All night. Please tell me where you see the fun in that?"

Taylor paused. "Right. Summer, I am so sorry that we're stuck. I never thought that this would happen when I planned this impromptu trip."

Summer sighed. She couldn't be mad at Taylor. It really wasn't her fault, it's not like she intended for this to happen. Plus spending a night in the airport with no one to talk to would really suck.

She would make the most of this night. Hopefully it wouldn't be too bad.

* * *

Seth stood, tapping his foot impatiently. He looked at the clock once again. They were late. How were they late?

He had this whole day planned out perfectly. He had it planned for months. And most important, he had kept it a secret from Summer. That had been the hardest thing in his life.

With Taylor and Ryan's help, he came up with an amazing plan. Taylor had helped him get Summer away from their apartment, while Ryan had helped him move all the furniture from the apartment. Even Sandy and Kirsten had helped, earlier on, coming and helping him pick the perfect house.

It wasn't a large house but it was a perfect house for him and Summer. He didn't want to tell her because along with the new house, he was going to propose to her.

It should have been a foolproof plan. Summer wasn't anywhere near him, she wasn't even in the same state. He set up the house and had dinner waiting on the table for her. Taylor should have brought her to the house a half hour ago.

This was not part of the plan.

His cell phone started ringing. He picked it up quickly.

"Summer?" he questioned.

"No, it's Taylor," she whispered to him.

"Why are you whispering?"

"I don't want Summer to hear."

"Where are you?"

"We're at the airport."

Seth was confused. He had sent Ryan to pick them up. "Did Ryan not get you or something?"

"No, we're stuck at the airport in Buffalo."

"You've got to be kidding me."

"No. Apparently there's really bad weather and our flight was just officially cancelled."

"Shit," Seth muttered. This was not good. His perfect plan had been ruined. Of course. "There's no way you can get here?"

"Not really Seth."

He heard Summer's voice in the background. "Is that Seth? Can I talk to him?"

A moment later Summer had gotten the phone from Taylor. "Seth, I am so sorry that this happened."

"We should have checked the weather reports, I guess before sending you off," he replied glumly.

"Don't worry, we got the earliest flight back. I can't wait to get back to the apartment." He heard some whispers from Taylor and Summer. "Cohen, Taylor is making me get off the phone. She said something about saving her battery or something. I'll call you later."

She hung up before he could reply. He placed the phone down.

He wished that this day wouldn't have been ruined. He wanted so badly for everything to go well. It was high time that they got engaged, they were 24 and had been dating since they were 16.

He sighed. There had to be a way to salvage this night. Suddenly an idea popped into his head.

He would drive to Buffalo.

* * *

Summer had just been having wishful thinking apparently. So far two hours had passed and they had been the longest two hours of her life. Staying in the airport was definitely the worst thing that had ever happened to her in her life.

There were mass amounts of people hanging out, waiting to find out when they could get another flight. Lots and lots of children. Apparently a middle school field trip had taken camp up right behind where she was trying to shut her eyes and sleep. She loved kids, she really did but after having to spend a whole day with a crying baby she didn't want to put up with these kids.

Plus as much as she hated to admit it, but she just couldn't fall asleep without Seth near her. He was always next to her at night when she was sleeping, no matter how late either of them had to work, they were always together. He was a comfort to her. It made her feel safer and less lonely. Knowing that he was only a few inches away from her made her feel that way. Plus there was something so comforting about having his arms wrapped around her and their small little senseless talks before they fell asleep. She missed this comforting feeling at the moment.

Then she remembered that she had Seth's iPod. She had grabbed it from him that morning, since hers was broken. So she wasn't the biggest fan of Seth's music but anything was better than listening to the overly excited kids.

She turned it on┘and it immediately died. Of course Seth hadn't charged the battery. He never did.

Summer groaned. This was horrible. She looked next to her where Taylor was sitting totally engrossed in a book, headphones on her ears, blocking out the noise. She glared at her. This was so not fair at all, Taylor getting to block out all the noise, when this whole ordeal was her fault in the first place.

She decided to once again try to get to sleep, despite the loudness and the fact that there was no Seth. It wasn't that late but she had been up so early that it felt incredibly late to her. There was momentary silence from the middle schoolers so she decided that maybe this would be a good chance.

She closed her eyes. There was a good ten minutes of silence before something started up again.

"Gabriel! Put your bag next to mine!"

"No! He promised me!"

"Gabriel, I want you to sit with me!"

Summer's eyes shot open. It was officially impossible to sleep. She sighed, picking up her earlier abandoned magazine.

This was going to be the longest night of her life.

* * *

"Drive faster Ryan!" Seth exclaimed. "80 is the new 70."

"Shut up Seth," Ryan replied through clenched teeth, not taking his eyes off the road. They were near Utica, New York and the roads were beginning to get slippery and the snow was starting to come. "I'm trying to drive here."

"You're doing it too slow."

"Do you want to get in a car accident?"

Seth sighed. "No."

"Then stop whining and just let me drive," Ryan replied.

Seth kept his mouth shut. He had to admit that it was nice of Ryan to drive him through the snow just to get to Buffalo to see Summer. Sure, he was being pretty illogical at the moment with the whole driving through an insane snow storm but at least Ryan let that slip by.

He started to fiddle with the radio. The music that Ryan was making him listen to was...not good. He couldn't handle it.

"Stop touching the radio."

"I'll stop complaining if you just let me change the station."

Ryan shook his head. Seth leaned back. He always knew those times when he wouldn't let anyone else touch the radio when he was driving were going to come back to haunt him.

This trip was turning out to be longer than he thought it was going to be. It was about a 7 hour trip, but so far they had already been driving for 5 and were going to be for at least another 3. It was already midnight.

So maybe the sudden decision to drive to Buffalo hadn't been the best idea he had ever had. It was definitely not the most rational thought that he had ever had.

Then he thought of Summer and the ring that was in his pocket. He wanted so badly for the ring to get on her finger as soon as possible. So if it meant having to drive in a car with bad music and a slightly grumpy Ryan, then so be it.

He just really needed to work on Ryan's taste in music.

* * *

"How the hell are they still up?" Summer groaned.

It was 3 o'clock in the morning. She wanted to sleep. She had almost been up for a full 24 hours. It was way longer than she had ever wanted to be up.

The middle school children were still wide awake. They hadn't shut up for the whole time that they had been there. The chaperones had tried to quiet them down but after two hours, had given up completely.

Summer had spent the past two hours watching and observing them. She had nothing better to do. She realized that the teachers were regretting ever coming up with an out of state field trip idea and that they had lost all control. She also realized that the majority of the girls were obsessed with this Gabriel kid. By the looks of him, he was older, so she was assuming it was because he was the older man. He sure didn't act like it though.

She realized that she was starting to go insane. No one would observe this kids and draw conclusions about them if they weren't. She needed to sleep. But no. That was physically impossible considering the girls would scream out with laughter every time Gabriel would say anything. He said "I have to go to the bathroom" and they were howling with laughter.

"Summer. Are you still watching those stupid kids?" Taylor opened one eye, looking at her.

"Yes. I don't understand it. I just don't get their obsession with Gabriel. Plus I don't understand their over abundance of energy. I mean they're like Seth with five cups of coffee in his system."

Taylor winced at this thought. "Why would you ever let him have five cups of coffee?"

"We didn't go to sleep that night. I had about the same myself."

"Didn't go to sleep all night? What were you two doing?" Taylor smirked at her best friend.

Summer blushed, she knew what Taylor was indicating but she was not about to discuss her sex life in an airport with a bunch of 12 year olds right next to her. They weren't exactly ready to hear about that.

Just thinking about Seth made her miss him. She should be at home, spending the night with him. Yea, she had only been away from him for the day but the whole week had been one long week where both of them worked early to late, only seeing each other for dinner, then an hour or two were spent together before they fell asleep. Fridays were their day, the day to be together. And while she had agreed to go on this ridiculous little trip, she had thought she was going to get to spend the night with him.

"Damn you Taylor," Summer said.

Taylor looked at her, confused. "What did I do?"

"You made me go on this stupid trip to visit your relatives. Seriously how come you picked relatives from Buffalo to go visit?"

Taylor hesitated. She really really wanted to tell Summer that the visit was all part of the plan that Seth had come up with, but if she did that then Seth would never trust her to be apart of his plans again. That was definitely not what she wanted so she somehow managed to keep her mouth shut.

She turned to say something to Summer but she had curled up on the chair, turning her back to Taylor. She sighed. These next four hours were going to be very long.

* * *

Seth was jolted awake abruptly as the car jerked forward. He turned his head and glared at Ryan.

"What the hell was that for Ryan?" he grumbled.

"I didn't mean to do that," Ryan replied, annoyed at Seth. He got to sleep while he drove for 7 hours for Seth to propose to his girlfriend. That was in no way fair.

"Can you start driving again?"

Ryan tried to do just that. He couldn't move. He looked at Seth. "I think we're stuck."

"You've got to be kidding."

"No, I'm pretty sure that we're stuck."

Seth got out of the car to check it out. Sure enough, their front wheels were stuck in a snow bank. He leaned against the car, the snow falling around him. Seriously, what else could go wrong in his quest to propose to Summer?

"Do you know anything about getting out of a snow bank?" Ryan stuck his head out the window to look at Seth.

"Ryan. I am a child of southern California. I don't know the first thing about snow."

"But you get snow in Rhode Island."

"Yes, do you actually think I leave the house when that happens?"

"Right," Ryan sighed, sticking his head back into the car. He tried to get the car out of the snow bank again and failed.

"Any ideas?"

"Do I look like the type of person who knows what to do when your vehicle is stuck in snow?"

"Well you never know, you could secretly have a secret love for the snow and study it and wish that you lived in a snow filled place like Buffalo." Seth just received a look from Ryan. "No? Okay then."

"So what do you propose we do?"

Ryan shrugged. Seth sighed. They were never going to get to the airport and by the time that they did, Summer was going to be back in Rhode Island.

Suddenly bright headlights shone right in Seth's eyes, forcing him to close his eyes. When he opened them again, he was greeted by the sight of a man wearing old beat up clothes and a beat up baseball hat with some sort of logo for a sports team, Seth wasn't sure.

"Hey are you guys stuck?"

"Thank you Captain Obvious," Seth muttered under his breath. "Yea, we are."

"Need some help?"

"Yea that'd be great," Ryan called out.

"Here, I'll tow you out."

"Thanks..."Seth trailed off, not knowing his name.

"It's Gus. Gus Kinsley."

"Thank you Gus Kinsley," Seth replied.

Gus started to set up so he could tow them out and started small talk with Seth and Ryan.

"So are you two on your way to the game tonight?"

"Oh no. What game would that be?" Seth questioned, just trying to be polite to the man who was helping them get out.

Gus looked at him like he was insane. "The Sabres game?"

Seth thought for a minute. The Sabres...they were a football team weren't they? And they lost like four Superbowls in a row. He continued making small talk and said the first thing that came to his mind. "Yea, no the Sabres suck."

Gus dropped what he had been holding. "I can't help anyone who doesn't support the Sabres. You probably like the Sens don't you?"

He walked away from them, getting back in his truck. Seth started to panic.

"Wait! Gus, I didn't mean it! I love the Sabres, I totally do. They're an awesome football team."

It was too late. Gus had driven away. Seth rested his head against the car window.

"They're a hockey team Seth," Ryan commented. "And it seems that the Buffalo fans are pretty intense with their teams."

Seth groaned. Of course he would screw up their way to get out of the stupid snow bank.

Ryan was thinking the same thing. "The next time someone comes to help us, do not say a word."

For once, Seth agreed.

* * *

Seth couldn't believe it. They were finally at the airport. It only took nine hours to get there, one of those hours were spent getting out of the stupid snow bank. After the failure of Gus, they flagged down someone else to help them. He had been much nicer and hadn't mentioned a thing about sports, which was good when it came to Seth. They had finally been able to get free and had only been a half hour from the airport.

It was 4 in the morning and he was ready to go to sleep. He couldn't though. He had to get to Summer.

"Seth!" Ryan called to him before he charged into the airport.

"What Ryan?" Seth looked at his brother, an annoyed look on his face.

"You do realize that you are not going to be able to get to her right? You need a ticket to get through security and everything."

"Oh. Right."

"So how are you going to do this?"

Seth thought for a minute. This was a bit of a glitch in his already messed up plan that had taken an absolutely ridiculous turn. He needed to think of something fast.

* * *

Summer groaned. She had just fallen asleep about 20 minutes ago. It had been a nice peaceful sleep, considering Gabriel and his friends had finally shut up or were at least quieter. Now someone-most likely Taylor-was poking and shaking her, waking her up.

"Taylor stop. I told you an hour ago, I'm not pissed at you. I was kidding. Just let me sleep!"

"Hey, I'm a little insulted that you think I'm Taylor."

Summer's eyes shot open and she sat up. It wasn't Taylor, it was Seth. She looked up at him. "What-how are you here?"

"I made Ryan drive."

"Why did you come here?"

"I found myself incredibly lonely and just couldn't spend another minute without you."

"Cohen, I'd have been home in the morning."

"Can't you just be thankful and happy that your boyfriend missed you so much that he drove here in some of the most dangerous weather ever?"

"Yes, but I more think that you're stupid to do that. You could have gotten killed!"

"But I wasn't." Seth smiled at her.

Summer didn't smile back at him. She was glad that he had come to 'rescue' her, it was incredibly sweet of him, but she was pissed that he had taken a chance driving in the snow.

"I'm sorry Summer." Seth took a deep breath. This was it, he realized. He fiddled with the small box in his pocket before pulling it out again. He bent down on his knee and received a shocked, wide eyed look from Summer. "I really wanted to get to you though. See I had wanted to ask you to marry me tonight and when I found out that you weren't coming home, I needed to get to you. I couldn't wait any longer to do this. I love you so much Summer, more than I think most people realize. I mean I risked mine and Ryan's life to come and propose to you. So...will you marry me?"

Summer's hands flew to her mouth in surprise when Seth opened the small box, revealing the ring that was inside. This had to be a dream. She most definitely was not awake. Seth was not kneeling in front of her, holding a ring, asking her to marry him in front of all those awake in the airport, include her middle school buddies. It seemed that all those who were awake were waiting in anticipation for an answer.

She couldn't find the words for an answer though, considering her eyes filled with tears and she felt that if she talked she would sound like a teenage boy going through puberty. She choose instead to throw herself and kiss him.

She heard the airport burst into a round of 'awws'. She pulled away and looked at Seth who was grinning widely at her.

"So that's a yes right?" he asked just to be sure.

"Of course Cohen!" Summer exclaimed. "Are you an idiot? Did you ever really think that I would say no to you?"

Seth shook his head, the grin still lighting up his face."Just making sure."

"So you were going to propose to me tonight?" Seth nodded. "So if we weren't stuck in an airport how would this have gone?"

"Well, these two," he gestured to Ryan and Taylor next to them, "were all part of the plan. Actually this whole thing was. Well, not the you getting stuck in an airport, but the you going away for a whole day was. While you two were here, Ryan and I moved all of our stuff from the apartment into a house."

"You bought a house?!"

"Yea, and don't worry my parents helped me pick it out. It's a nice small house. I had a nice dinner for you and I was going to bring you into the house and then propose in the house at dinner."

"If anyone asks, that's how the proposal went. We will not be telling anyone that you asked me when I was stuck in an airport with Gabriel and his friends watching."

Seth looked around confused. "Who's Gabriel?"

"Don't ask," Taylor said.

"Gabriel will you ask me to marry you like that when we get older?"

"Obviously not, since he's gonna marry me!"

"No me!"

"So that's Gabriel and his friends," Summer said, gesturing to the group.

"Wow. You've been stuck here with them the whole time?" Seth asked.

"Yes. Summer's been observing them, since she couldn't sleep without you next to her."

"Hey! That is so not why I couldn't sleep, they were being annoying and these chairs are the farthest thing from comfortable."

Taylor rolled her eyes. "Yea, sure. That's just what you want us to think."

"Well, all is well and I am here now," Seth smiled.

"Thank you very much Taylor for giving him that ego boost."

"Anytime. Okay, well Ryan and I are going to leave now."Taylor caught on to Summer's confused look and decided to explain. "I let Seth take my plane ticket, since he couldn't get through security without one."

"Then how are you here?"

"We pulled some serious strings," Seth contributed to this.

"It's a good thing we're not at the Newport Airport or then we wouldn't have been able to do that. Taylor would have been put on the terrorist watch list," Ryan commented, smirking at his girlfriend.

Taylor blushed. No one ever let her live that down. She knew that she should have never let that get around.

"Anyways, we decided that they would drive back with the car and that I would fly back with you."

"So I still have to sit in this airport?" Summer questioned.

"Well, we can't let the tickets go to waste," Seth shrugged.

"Plus I knew that you were loving the saga that involved Gabriel so we decided that it would be the best idea."

"Thanks Taylor, I really appreciate it."

"Anytime. You'll get back before we do, considering your flight leaves in two hours," Taylor commented. "We figured that this would allow you and Seth some alone time in your new house before we come and crash your party."

"Just go," Summer waved her friend away.

"Bye!"

A few moments of silence passed, comfortable silence though. Summer leaned her head against Seth's chest, leaning into him. She noted how perfectly they fit into one another, like they were meant to be.

"Did you expect this to happen to you?" Seth asked softly.

"No, I really didn't. This whole day...it's been a day of surprises."

"Gabriel, you kissed Sydney!?"

Summer sat up. "Wow, another surprise. I totally thought that Gabriel would have gone for Leah or even Rachel before he went for Sydney. At first I thought it was Caitlyn before I realized that they were brother and sister. They have a weird relationship."

"We need to get you out of this airport," Seth commented.

Summer sighed. "We do." She yawned, letting her head fall back to his chest.

"Now that I'm here do you think you can sleep?" Seth asked in a slightly teasing tone.

She decided to ignore his tone only because it was true. Now she could sleep, with him there. She would never tell him that though. She closed her eyes, thinking of how interesting this day truly had been.

* * *

Summer breathed a happy sigh of relief as the pilot announced they would finally be taking off. It was an hour after their flight had been scheduled for and they just had to sit on the plane.

It was better than sitting in the airport though. She had Seth next to her, a beautiful engagement ring on her finger, and the whole Gabriel saga figured out (he never kissed Sydney, that was a total lie and he was totally crushing on Leah). It had been a long exhausting day and she really wanted to just get home.

She was mostly excited to get near to a phone and to announce to everyone that she was engaged. She was going to tell the airport story because really, it was exactly the type of proposal that would happen for the two of them. She wanted to see the house that Seth had picked out with the help of his parents, hoping that it was the house that she had always imagined. These things and sleep were definitely what she was most looking forward to at the moment.

She felt Seth's lips brush her cheek near her ear, followed by a soft whisper. "I love you."

She smiled at him. "I love you too."

As exhausting and annoying as the whole day had been, she loved the way it had ended.


End file.
